Quest Stories: A very classic story for most families, where one leaves their homeland in search of a better life. How did they come to a new land? This includes those families or an individual who moved within the same country. Such stories as those who traveled with the wagon trains out west, or those who traveled on the steamboats to the wilderness areas of Florida in the 1880s.

Come Back Stories: Those who suffered a major illness or disability to come back even stronger.

Rags to Riches Stories: A favorite type of family story centers around an ancestor who came to a new land or territory with nothing and built a successful life. It works in reverse also ‘Riches to Rags’ where a wealthy individual or family has everything and it is all lost due to the economy, foolishness, poor decisions, war, etc.

Tragedy Stories: there are tragedies in every family due to countless different causes. Just relating about the specific family tragedy can better help the present generation understand how they got to where their life began.

Comedy Stories: Just like having tragedies, there can be many humorous events that happened to a family or individual.

Love Stories: Always attempt to learn how different couples met, what brought them together. Those stories can be the best yet. For example, my parents met while both were serving in the military in 1948, they had to be a certain military base on election day – Nov. 1948 and were introduced at breakfast by mutual friends.

Remember the old saying ‘that truth can be stranger than fiction’. Find that true family story and start to get it in written or video format for preservation.

Photos: Statue Liberty as Immigrants arrive 1890; ‘Princess May’ aground on Sentinel Island, Alaska August 5, 1910; poor boys in Borough of Lambeth of London, England in the 19th century and World War Two lovers.